One-Percent Warrior | aka One Percenter (2023) Review

“One-Percent Warrior” Theatrical Poster

AKA: 1%er
Director: Yudai Yamaguchi
Cast: Tak Sakaguchi, Kohei Fukuyama, Harumi Kanon, Taro Suruga, Togo Ishii, Sho Aoyagi, Itsuji Itao, Kenjiro Ishimaru, Keisuke Horibe, Ohji Hiroi
Running Time: 85 min.

By Paul Bramhall

One-Percent Warrior offers up a welcome reunion of 3 of Japan’s most prominent names in action cinema, director Yudai Yamaguchi, star Tak Sakaguchi, and choreographer Kensuke Sonomura. The last time the trio crossed paths in the same capacity was on the 2011 Sushi Typhoon double whammy of Yakuza Weapon and Dead Ball (which saw Yamaguchi remaking his own Battlefield Baseball from 2003, also starring Takaguchi), so it feels like cause for excitement to see them unexpectedly reunite 12 years later.

Things have changed a lot in the time that’s passed. Yamaguchi has mainly stuck to TV work, with his occasional ventures back into filmmaking coming with such inspired titles as Chin-Yu-Ki: The Journey to the West with Farts. Tak Sakaguchi famously retired from action filmmaking in 2016 with Re:Born, and subsequently proceeded to turn up in so many action movies since that we’re already into double figures, including 2020’s Crazy Samurai Musashi (which used a 77 minute one-take fight sequence he shot in 2011 from an abandoned Sono Sion project) and most recently Bad City. Notably it’s Sonomura who directed Bad City, his sophomore directorial feature after 2019’s Hydra, who has really come into his own as a fight choreographer since last working with the pair. His stellar fight work is on display in both of his directorial efforts, as well as the likes of Yugo Sakamoto’s Baby Assassins and its sequel.

Their latest collaboration takes a decidedly meta-approach to the action genre, opening with a series of interview clips and behind-the-scenes footage (from what appears to be Re:Born) that blurs reality and fiction, with several of the talking heads espousing the virtues of the action movie star Sakaguchi plays. Sakaguchi gripes to the camera about how there’s no realism in action scenes these days, and so to counter it he’s made his own style of onscreen combat called ‘Realism Action’. Since his last hit with Birth 10 years ago he’s been developing his existing martial arts style of “assassination-jutsu”, and the result is the creation of the enigmatic sounding wave technique. Remember when I referred to Sakaguchi’s martial arts style in Re:Born as a “crinkly clothed samba”? That’s the wave technique, and here he not only reveals how the technique can be used to dodge bullets (finally!), but also how it even has its own one-inch punch!

With such a hardcore approach to filming action though Sakaguchi has become devoid of disciples, with only one sticking by him, a loyal apprentice played by Kohei Fukuyama (High & Low: The Worst). When his latest bad guy gig turns sour because the lead can’t keep up with him (in a hilarious scene that’s obviously sending up the action in the Rurouni Kenshin franchise), Sakaguchi decides it’s time to film a “100% pure action film”, and so he and Fukuyama end up in an abandoned old zinc factory on an island to start scouting locations. It’s while there that they’re interrupted by a gang of yakuza, who’ve kidnapped the daughter of a rival yakuza boss who recently passed away, knowing that he hid a sizable stash of cocaine somewhere on the island. Threatening to kill her if she doesn’t reveal its location, Sakaguchi soon realises it’s a chance for him to step into the role he believes he was born to play, and tells Fukuyama to “Film the whole thing.”

This setup basically allows the last hour of One-Percent Warrior’s punchy 85-minute runtime to be one continuous action sequence, as Sakaguchi stalks the corridors and open spaces of the factory, picking off the “retired commandos” that the father and daughter yakuza bosses have brought along with them. The daughter is played by a scene stealing Harumi Kanon, here making her debut as a ruthless psychopath with a prosthetic leg, who’s reason for wanting to bring the late yakuza bosses’ daughter along turns out to be very different than what we’re initially led to believe. When one of the lackeys explains how they were taken out by Sakaguchi, her response is to ask, “Are you telling me Jackie Chan’s here!?”, which sees Sakaguchi being amusingly referred to as Jackie Chan for the duration, despite his plea that he prefers Bruce Lee.

Clocking in a similarly noteworthy performance is Taro Suruga (Hard Days), who plays a fight choreographer working on a “Chinese funded blockbuster” and comes with his own stunt team (the hilariously named Tony Stunts, of whom Hydra’s Masanori Mimoto is a member!), believing that Sakaguchi’s style of action is too demanding to be sustainable. In a way his approach ties into the meaning of the title One-Percent Warrior, which Sakaguchi explains is a reference to the number of students who study their art long enough to become a true master of it. Suruga drops the concept of a one-take sequence after the first attempt goes wrong, deciding to film it in multiple close-up cuts instead, while Sakaguchi refuses to compromise on his vision of making a pure action film.

This is the 2^nd time to see Sakaguchi choreographed by Sonomura in as many years, and for those who didn’t feel they got enough of him in action in Bad City, One-Percent Warrior will definitely scratch the itch. Like the character he plays, Sakaguchi has been constantly developing his action style over the years, from the padded gloves of Death Trance to allow for full contact hitting, to the Zero Range Combat of Re:Born, here is probably the closest we’ll get to seeing his offscreen philosophies transferred onscreen. There’s a couple of group melee’s that stand out, one involving the use of a monkey wrench that marks the first time I’ve seen the intended functionality of a wrench be successfully incorporated into a fight, and the other utilising a flashlight as much to blind as to cause blunt force trauma (setting the latter to the dreamy refrains of Debussy’s Clair de Lune providing an unexpected compliment to the onscreen violence).

The real highlight though belongs to the final one-on-one which sees him face off against Jeet Kune Do instructor Togo Ishii. As a fight it successfully blends Sakaguchi’s distinctive post-Re:Born style with what I like to call Sonomura’s mastery of ‘rustle-fu’ – that is, fights that are allowed to play out minus any soundtrack, and instead rely purely on the sound and movements of the actors to generate excitement. After making quick work of anyone he comes across so far, Ishii gives Sakaguchi a legitimate run for his money as an opponent, and the speed of which they exchange fists and feet with each other brought a legitimate smile to my face. This is Ishii’s first foray into the film industry, and while his bodyguard remains silent, his singular fight scene is enough to leave a lasting impression, resulting in what I’d be willing to argue is the best one-on-one fight of Sakaguchi’s 23-year career.

The final reel of One-Percent Warrior goes in a surprisingly bittersweet direction, offering a take on what it means to strive at being best in what you do, while never straying from the core concept of what drives an action star to be who they are. It may only have a fraction of the budget a production like Ride On had, which offered similar musings on what it means to be a part of action cinema, however Yamaguchi’s latest has a sincerity to it which Jackie Chan’s take on the same theme lacked, making it easy to look past its budgetary limitations. Capturing the viewpoint of an action star in a way which feels far more authentic and intimate, the closing scene is ultimately just as memorable as the fight action.

As an exercise in meta-filmmaking meets martial arts action cinema One-Percent Warrior manages to strike an entertaining balance, even throwing in some welcome humor (a conversation implying the shame of going either DTV or straight to streaming being particularly funny). At one point Sakaguchi is asked “You’re an actor, an action film actor right?” Perhaps now more than ever we can say the answer is yes, with not even his own self-declared retirement being able to stop him from continuing to embrace new ways of bringing hand to hand combat to the screen. To that end, One-Percent Warrior undoubtably delivers.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 7/10